It may have been the time of year, the heavy rains pouring outside, or two young teams. All of those may have factored in to a very rusty 24 minutes which turned into a fantastic finish. The Sehome Mariners survived a late push by the Squalicum Storm, and pulled out a 33-32 victory in front of a near capacity crowd at Sehome.
But before they got to the fun stuff, both teams, while playing very solid defense, had all kinds of trouble on their offensive ends. Squalicum, which has no seniors on their roster, hit only one field goal in each of the first two quarters. Sehome didn’t have it much better, but led 15-5 at halftime.
Squalicum took their first lead, 28-26 with 2:15 left in the game on a steal and lay in by sophomore Cole Burke. Sehome senior forward Austin McKay tied the score on a drive with 35 seconds left, then hit a free throw for the lead ten seconds later.
Sophomore guard Nolan Wright added two free throws with 21 seconds left for a three-point Sehome lead. Squalicum junior Marcus Nixon scored off a quick cut on a baseline inbound play to cut the deficit back to a single point with nine seconds left. Wright was immediately fouled a second later, and again, nailed two big free throws, giving Sehome a 33-30 lead.
On the final run by the Storm, Nixon drove the ball into the Sehome defense to draw a crowd inside the 3-point line. He found junior Jaxon Hofer in the left corner. Hofer drove toward the left wing as he was being guarded by Mariner 6-6 senior Braddock Duckworth. Hofer twisted in the air and nailed the shot at the buzzer, but his feet were inside the 3-point line when he went up to shoot, leaving the Storm a single point short.
Nixon’s 12 points led the Storm, while Wright paced the Mariners with ten. Sophomore Cole Turrell added nine points for Sehome.
On Thursday, Squalicum (0-1/0-2) travels to Ferndale, while Sehome (1-0/1-1) hosts Meridian.
~ Ted House
Comments